''mummy sobs'', ''bloody fed up''- shows her mother is homesick and is fed up of english life.

''you wanted this house remember that''- papa is shouting because they are fed up of the house.

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chapter 3 Anita

''**** of our yard''- this suggests that she is the one they look upto and is like the leader of the girls.

''****** off cherub''- this is suggesting that she is quite a hard faced girl.

''foghorn voice''- suggests she has a loud voice to control people.

''snatched the bag off me''- suggests she is rude and doesnt care about things.

''yow''- the birmingham accent in the 60s.

''what you got''- shows she isnt very well educated.

''go on i dare yow soft old sod''- she isnt very polite to the elders and people.

''yow am a bloody cow sometimes''- meena insults her for sticking up for sam at the fete.

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chapter 7 sunil

''nowadays she seemed to exist in self contained world of nappies''- she is too busy with sunil to look after herself and everybody else.

''i cant cope anymore shyam''- shes missing india and cant cope.

''give him away to the sunshine orphanage in cannock''- meena doesnt like him and feels threatened by him.

''if a brown or black face ever did appear on tv it stopped us all in our tracks''- immigrants not represented in the media and is unusual to see a coloured face.

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chapter 8/9

''i have never seen mama looking so fresh and girlish'', ''it struck me how lonely she must have been'', ''i vowed i would never leave her''- meena comes to value the meaning of her family more and realises how sad her mother must have been.

''it felt strange to hear punjab under the stars''- when nanima talks of the punjab, meena gets curious.

''it was all falling into place now...before nanima arrived, this urge to reinvent myself...was driven by shame, the shame i felt when we did india at school''- meena no longer needs to hide who she is.

''i found myself doing jobs i had run away from just a few weeks earlier''- meena wants to help around the house whereas before she would want to be with anita.

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chapter 8 nanima

''i admired this mad logic''- she is like an older meena who likes to tell stories and she enjoys her cuddles.

''your nanima has come to see you''- she has come to see sunil and heal the family .

''int she sweet'', ''lovely colour''-the villagers like her even though they do not understand her.

''i desperatley wanted to visit india and claim some of this magic as my own''-she tells meena stories from india that make meena want to visit.

''since nanimas arrival we had fallen into a comfortable routine''-she sends order around the house, takes care of sunil and they spend diwali together.

''the house would be warm and delicious smelling''- she makes the house more homely and comfortable again.